Su-34 Fullback

The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name Fullback) is a twin-engine, two-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber developed by Sukhoi from the Su-27 and built by the Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association (NAPO). Conceived in the mid-1980s to replace the swing-wing Su-24, it first flew on 13 April 1990 and entered Russian Air Force service on 20 March 2014. It is recognisable by its wide "duckbill" nose housing a side-by-side armoured cockpit, and flew Russian strike missions over Syria from 2015 and over Ukraine from 2022.

Development

Sukhoi began work in the mid-1980s on a Su-24 replacement under the internal designation T-10V, choosing the Su-27 for its range, manoeuvrability and payload; the project was shelved at the end of the decade as the Soviet Union disintegrated. The first prototype, converted from a Su-27UB with the new nose, flew on 13 April 1990 as the Su-27IB (fighter-bomber). The first pre-production aircraft, T10V-2, built at Novosibirsk, flew on 18 December 1993 with revised fins, twin-wheel tandem main gear and a lengthened tail "stinger" housing an auxiliary power unit to balance the heavier cockpit. The first production-standard aircraft, carrying the Leninets V004 radar, flew on 28 December 1994 and was redesignated Su-34.

An initial batch of eight was completed in 2004 and the Defence Ministry announced the purchase of the first five pre-production aircraft in March 2006. Sukhoi declared full-rate production on 9 January 2008 and the state trials ended on 19 September 2011. A 2008 contract for 32 aircraft and a 2012 contract for 92 brought the order book to 124 for delivery by 2020; the last two reached the 968th Fighter Aviation Regiment at Lipetsk in December 2020, taking deliveries to 131 operational aircraft plus seven pre-production machines. The first four aircraft to the upgraded Su-34M standard went to the 277th Bomber Aviation Regiment in June 2022, and the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies counted 178 airframes built by early 2024, including prototypes; deliveries continued in 2025 and 2026.

Design

The Su-34 keeps most of the wing structure, tail and engine nacelles of the Su-27/Su-30 and adds canard foreplanes to raise static instability and reduce trim drag. It is 23.34 m (76 ft 7 in) long with a 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in) span, weighs 22,500 kg (49,600 lb) empty and 45,100 kg (99,400 lb) at maximum take-off, and carries 12,100 kg (26,700 lb) of internal fuel. Two Saturn AL-31FM1 afterburning turbofans, the engines of the Su-27SM, deliver 132 kN (29,700 lbf) each with afterburner for a maximum speed of 1,900 km/h (1,180 mph; Mach 1.8) at altitude, a maximum range of 4,000 km (2,500 mi) and a 17,000 m (56,000 ft) ceiling; the airframe is cleared to 9 g.

The forward fuselage is new: the wide nose, nicknamed "Duckling" or "Platypus", seats the pilot-commander on the left and the navigator/weapons officer on the right on NPP Zvezda K-36DM ejection seats inside a continuous 17 mm armoured capsule. The cabin is pressurised for flight to 10,000 m (32,800 ft) without oxygen masks and has standing room, a hand-held urinal and a vacuum flask. The Leninets V004 passive electronically scanned array has terrain-following and terrain-avoidance modes, detects large surface targets at 200–250 km (120–160 mi) and fighter-sized aircraft at up to 120 km (75 mi), and tracks ten air targets while attacking four. A Khibiny electronic countermeasures system is standard. The Su-34M adds an electro-optical/infrared targeting pod and a rearward-facing Kopyo-DL radar that cues automatic countermeasures against approaching missiles.

Armament

The single 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon of the Su-27 is retained with 180 rounds. Twelve hardpoints carry 12,000–14,000 kg (26,500–30,900 lb) of ordnance, no single store exceeding 4,000 kg (8,800 lb), with stand-off weapons reaching 250 km (160 mi). Six R-73 or R-77 missiles, or the R-27, are carried for self-defence. Air-to-surface missiles include the Kh-25, Kh-29, Kh-31A anti-ship and Kh-31P anti-radiation versions, Kh-35U, Kh-38M, Kh-58 and Kh-59M; the Su-34M was reported to carry long-range cruise missiles from September 2023. Bombs run from KAB-500 and KAB-1500 guided bombs, the BETAB-500ShP penetrator and RBK-500 cluster bombs to FAB-250, -500, -1500 and -3000 bombs fitted with UMPK glide-and-correction kits and the UMPB D-30SN glide bomb.

Operational History

Russian units are the 47th Bomber Aviation Regiment at Baltimor (Voronezh), the 277th at Khurba, the 559th at Morozovsk and the 2nd Guards at Chelyabinsk Shagol, with aircraft at Lipetsk and Akhtubinsk. Six Su-34s arrived at Latakia in September 2015 and struck Islamic State targets from 1 October, hitting a command centre and training camp south-west of Raqqa from above 5,000 m (16,400 ft) with guided bombs cued by GLONASS. After Turkey shot down a Su-24 in November 2015, Su-34s flew with air-to-air missiles from 30 November. Two Su-34s allegedly bombed a Turkish convoy at Balyun on 27 February 2020, killing up to 36 soldiers. In the spring of 2016 the type also bombed river ice jams in Vologda Oblast to prevent flooding.

The first Su-34 shot down over Ukraine fell near Buzova airfield on 28 February 2022. Lacking guided bombs until the satellite-guided UMPK kits arrived in 2023, crews flew low into Ukrainian air defences. Ukraine used MIM-104 Patriot missiles to ambush Su-34s over occupied Kherson Oblast and near Mariupol; it claimed three shot down in the south on 22 December 2023, at least one confirmed by a Russian Telegram channel, and ten in February 2024, claims not independently verified. As of 16 February 2025, 36 Su-34s and one Su-34M had been visually confirmed lost, damaged or abandoned — 29 destroyed in combat, four in non-combat incidents and four damaged — and Oryx counted 41 damaged or destroyed by July 2025. On the night of 14 to 15 October 2026 Ukraine's Navy said Neptune cruise missiles struck six Su-34M aircraft at Borisoglebsk Air Base in Voronezh Oblast; satellite imagery published the next day showed damage to four Su-34s in the parking area, according to the Institute for the Study of War, while Russian authorities acknowledged no losses. Away from the front, a Su-34 crashed into an apartment block at Yeysk on 17 October 2022, killing 15 people; the Russian Defence Ministry attributed the crash to an engine fire on take-off.

Algeria negotiated for 12 aircraft from January 2016 and reportedly signed for 14 on 27 December 2019 in a package with Su-35s and Su-57s, a deal never confirmed by either government; according to Mil.press, Russia agreed in 2019 to supply the non-downgraded Su-34ME rather than the Su-32. The first Su-34MEs were reportedly delivered in 2025, and footage released by Russian sources in May 2026 confirmed four with the Algerian Air Force, the type's first export.

Variants

• Su-27IB (T-10V): Prototype converted from a Su-27UB with the side-by-side nose, first flown on 13 April 1990.
• Su-34: Baseline fighter-bomber for the Russian Air Force, built at Novosibirsk from 2006 until the Su-34M replaced it in production.
• Su-32FN / Su-32: Designations used at the 1995 Paris Air Show, where the Su-32FN was presented as a shore-based naval strike aircraft, and for the export model offered to Algeria in 2012, no longer marketed.
• Su-34E: Current export designation.
• Su-34M (Su-34 NVO "Sych"): Modernised version contracted in 2020 that replaced the baseline aircraft in production, with upgraded radar, sighting and communications, a wider range of guided munitions and an armed reconnaissance sub-variant in service from July 2025.
• Su-34ME: Non-downgraded export version, reportedly first delivered to Algeria in 2025.